Super Typhoon Fung-wong leaves 2 dead in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Super Typhoon Fung-wong battered the Philippines' northeastern coast ahead of landfall on Sunday, leaving at least two people dead and forcing more than a million people to evacuate from areas at risk of flash floods, landslides and tidal surges, officials said.

The typhoon could cover two-thirds of the Southeast Asian archipelago with its 1,800-kilometer-wide rain and wind band, forecasters said.

It approached from the Pacific while the Philippines was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central provinces on Tuesday before pummeling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.

A villager drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes and another died in Catbalogan city in eastern Samar Province when she was pinned by debris, officials said.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a state of emergency due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected calamity from Fung-wong, which is known as Uwan in the Philippines.

The typhoon packed maximum winds of up to 185 km per hour and gusts of up to 230 kph. It was located before noon on Sunday over coastal waters near the town of Pandan in Catanduanes, where torrential rains and fog had obscured visibility. It was expected to track northwestward and make landfall on the coast of Aurora or Isabela provinces later on Sunday or early on Monday, state forecasters said.

Tropical cyclones with sustained winds of 185 kph or higher are categorized in the Philippines as a super typhoon, a designation adopted years ago to underscore the urgency tied to more extreme weather disturbances.

"The rain and wind were so strong that there was nearly zero visibility," Roberto Monterola, a disaster mitigation officer for Catanduanes, told The Associated Press by telephone.

Despite calls for residents to evacuate on Saturday, some residents still stayed.

"Our personnel rescued 14 people who were trapped on the roof of a house engulfed in flood in a low-lying neighborhood," Monterola said.

"A father also called in panic, saying the roof of his house was about to be ripped off by the wind. We saved him and four relatives."

More than a million people were moved away from high-risk villages in northeastern provinces, including in Bicol, a coastal region vulnerable to Pacific cyclones and mudflows from Mayon, one of the country's most active volcanoes.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr warned about the potentially catastrophic impact of Fung-wong in televised remarks on Saturday.

He said the storm could affect a vast expanse of the country, including Cebu, the central province hit hardest by the previous typhoon, and metropolitan Manila, the densely populated capital region.

Authorities in northern provinces that could be hit or sideswiped by Fung-wong preemptively shut schools and most government offices on Monday and Tuesday.

At least 325 domestic and 61 international flights have been canceled over the weekend and into Monday, and more than 6,600 commuters and cargo workers were stranded in seaports, where the coast guard prohibited ships from venturing into rough seas.

Agencies via Xinhua